[Player Log Start!]
[Log Holder: Gideon Tench]
[Level: 1, Sub-Level: 6 & 7]
For a moment, there were sharp creaks, cutting through the thick metal of the submarine, which tended to mute everything so well. Except for this great creaking noise, which got louder and louder, surrounding them from all sides.
Ben looked up in alarm, and then moved towards one of the numerous windows to get a better look, “What do you think that is?” She asked. Through the thick glass, they could see branches of metal curling up in every direction, moving as if they were alive, to form cogs and pipes and gargoyles. It was unnatural, something that could only be achieved by… something inhuman.
“Are the children safe?” Tench responded, horror gripping his heart as he remembered the crowds of well-meaning, sharp-tongued individuals running around the place. The creaking sound was still coming, sounding for all the world as if large beams of metal were being bent in half by the strongest man in the world. He swung onto Burks, and he must have looked terrifying by the way the man flinched back.
“Are they?” He asked him, again.
“I don’t know any Harbingers with a Mechanical Affinity.” Burks replied.
A Mechanical Affinity? Lucky had one of those! She must be responsible for this. Hopefully. It couldn’t hurt to make sure.
He left the room in a quick jog, that quickly became a run as the metal of the submarine itself began stretching and warping, too, spreading itself out like putty until he reached the exit door and- there was no more exit door.
There was no narrow tube hallway.
It was all just open air. All a large, metal dome, with the air quality musty and stale, but not deadly in any capacity. And not cramped, either. Tench took a deep breath, and a shaky step forward over the slight groove that marked where the exit should have been. There were support beams dotted across the large area, supporting the roof.
The spirals and lines weaving over the dome of the ceiling were such that when he followed them with his eyes, they invariably all led him back to the central support, in the very middle of this vast expanse, where Lucky and the tumblethorn children were standing. Or, well, everyone else was standing, Lucky was sitting, you understand.
None of that helped his anxiety though, as he rushed over to look over all the kids for any kind of injury. Even if the chaos wasn’t in an effort to harm them, a lot could have happened. Falling debris, getting in the way of moving objects, a pillar sprouting up from the place they were standing and spearing them in two with no warning whatsoever- The possibilities were terrifying to contemplate.
But, fortunately, all of them were unscathed, blinking up at his stricken face with polite bafflement. He found that they had that look a lot around him.
“Are you okay, Mister?” One of them – Landon, if he remembered correctly – asked, “Ya look all kinds of freaked out.”
“Oh no, did something fall on you?” Lucky asked, wringing her hands in worry, “I limited the debris as much as possible, but perchance something slipped my notice-”
“Nope, all good here!” Tench told them all cheerfully, “Looks like we have our… Safe Zone, huh?”
“Not yet.” Lucky shook her head, “Simply having a facility does not qualify as a Safe Zone. It is the people who gather here that make it one. The community we foster. The safety we provide. That is what it means to be safe.”
“Huh. I guess.” Tench agreed. He understood what she meant, at the very least. Sometime ago he had shared a similar philosophy. Guess it was easier to let it all slip by you and take the Game for its literal word. If only the Console would be more forthcoming about its terms.
And also, there was one other problem from that, “How’re we supposed to get people here? We have no way to reaching out to them and telling them that we’re here.”
“Word has a way of carrying.” Ben replied, whispering into his ear. He was so accustomed to her presence, he didn’t even flinch at the jumpscare.
“Shouldn’t you be watching Burks in case he makes an escape attempt?” He asked.
“He can ‘attempt’ all he wants, but it sure as hell won’t do anything.” Ben boasted, “Even his fingers are immobile, there’s no way he’s getting out.”
“You tied down his hands? That’s going to cause circulation issues.” Tench frowned, “You know what happens to a body when it doesn’t receive fresh oxygen? It-”
“Dies and rots while still connected to the body, yes I know, humans and animals aren’t that different, buddy.” She finished the sentence for him, shaking her head disapprovingly, “And none of that’s important, anyhow, because I wanted to tell you about the people like… some distance away?”
“What?” Lucky Paine’s chair clambered over to her, pulling the mechanic up to eye level with Ben in her excitement, “What did you just say?”
“There’s people. Down the plain. Looking for help from you guys.” Ben explained, “I arrived with them, but when they saw the party at the front, they backed off for the most part. Might still be hanging around, though.”
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“Maybe the cathedral from nowhere caught their attention?” Lucky Paine offered.
“Only if they have a death wish.” Melinda muttered. Before they could argue more on where these people Ben had found were now, a sharp knock sounded on the door. The large, vaulted doors, taller than any person could possibly be.
Everyone’s heads turned to look at it, as another knock sounded, ringing through their shocked silence. Lucky Paine grimaced, shifting her chair back into a lower height, making the bottom part recline for the comfort of her legs as she began the tense journey over to the doors.
Two large legs came up, latching onto swirly handholds at ground level, which had no use other to herself. With a quick heave, the doors were opening, letting in smog like a veritable flood, and along with it, four people dressed in brown from head to toe. Two were short, barely coming up to the backrest of Lucky’s chair, while the other two seemed to be adult-sized. Hopefully.
Lucky let them in, shutting the door firmly once everyone was inside. The smog lingered, acrid and everpresent.
“Good evening.” She nodded, glancing towards the clock that stood proud over their door. It said six am, which was a surprise to Tench. He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen a clock. Even in the ZombieWorld he called home. It latched onto him, giving him a solid point in time to use as an anchor and stabilize him. One glance at the clock, and suddenly he felt much more stable. How come Hygeia didn’t have any clocks in it?
He didn’t have time to consider this. The people were making their way inside, heads tilted up as they took in this monument of grandeur.
“Like what you see?” Lucky asked proudly, “It’s all my handiwork.”
One of the taller people whistled, taking it all in, “This is great. How long it take for you to make this place? Must have taken a crapton of planning.”
“Wait a minute.” The other one looked more carefully at Lucky, “Aren’t you the spiderlady who runs the Gunnerson’s train system? I’ve heard of you!”
Lucky beamed, making her way closer to them, “What have you heard? All good things?” Her voice was tinged with a slight edge. A warning bell for the newcomers to speak carefully. They didn’t seem to pick up on that, though, simply shrugging.
“We’re from Rustage land, so it’s not particularly good? But it was all petty stone-throwing. I thought the ‘riding on a spider’ thing was a rumor before this.”
Lucky laughed, more giddy than offended.
“Is it true you have an army of spiders?” One of the younger pair asked, hopping over to her with curiosity brimming out of them.
“Err, no.” Lucky replied, making the poor kid droop in disappointment.
“Mackie loves spiders.” The other tiny one explained, “He made us play spider together to blend into the desert.”
“What?” Lucky blinked.
“Because when we stand on top of each other, we have eight legs. Like a spider!” Mackie explained, hopping on the spot. Lucky split into a smile, reaching into her storage compartments and pulling out a small, wiry creature.
“Here.” She offered it to Mackie, who cradled it carefully, “It’s a clockwork jumping spider.”
Mackie squealed, hugging it close to his chest, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
Tench decided to come up and greet them, following right behind Ben, who was excitedly shaking their hands, and congratulating them, “You guys made it! I’m so glad you hung around to see.”
“We thought you were a goner.” An older woman whispered, patting her on the back, “You know these people? Or do you just jump in to save anyone who has a dangerous person leering over them?”
“Oh, Tench has been my buddy since we were kids!” Ben explained, pulling Tench closer, “He’s a doctor! I think you mentioned him? The miracle doctor?”
“He was your friend?” The not-spider obsessed child asked excitedly, “You’ve got friends in high places, ma’am!” Nervous laughter all around, but Tench transitioned to smooth medical practitioner.
“Okay, so you came all this way, so what seems to be the issue?” He asked, rolling his sleeves up, “I’ll see what I can do to help you. I’ve been told that I’m good at many different fields of medicine.” Lies, he was run-of-the-mill as it came, but who cared? He had magic hands!
The taller ones nodded, and pulled the hoods of their robes back to reveal a pair of dark haired and tanned skin people, with slight scars littered over their faces.
“There was an odd discoloration in my hands…” The woman explained, reaching her hand out to reveal dark lines down her veins, a bright purple against her skin. Tench grimaced as he took it in. Blood poisoning, not a doubt about it. Maybe from the air? Oh, who was he kidding, it was obviously the air.
“Have you been going outside a lot recently?” He asked, and then quickly backtracked as he realized the obvious answer, “I mean before you started the journey to come over here?”
“We were scavengers for the Rustage.” She whispered, holding onto her companion for support, “Were sent out daily to hunt further and further afield for any plants that could provide sustenance. So many hours, spent rooting about in those cursed lands…” She shuddered, and that was answer enough.
Tench bit his lip, not man enough to tell this woman the bad news. He had tried to clean up the pollutants in everyone else’s veins, to no effect. But it had never been the main thing he was trying to solve, so maybe…?
“Give me your hand.” He decided, holding out his right hand to her. She took it, albeit reluctantly. He closed his eyes, pouring all of his determination into this, until finally the familiar chime rang in his ears.
[Applying Healing!]
He opened his eyes cautiously, holding his concentration. Remembering everything he knew about blood poisoning and veins and carboxyhemoglobins, as the light burst from his fingertips, tracing her veins and going up and up, wiping all the bits away, until nothing harmful whatsoever was left behind. Only tan skin pocked with chickenpox scars.
Her eyes were watering when he pulled his hands away.
“Thank you.” She whispered, “I thought- I thought I was going to die.”
“But you didn’t.” He told her, calm and careful, “And what now? Are you going to return to Rustage?”
“No.” She refused immediately, squaring her shoulders, before the brief bit of bravery stumbled, “But where am I to go, then?”
Ben hesitated for a moment, “You could… stay here?” She offered, “This was planned to be a safehouse for any who want it, right?”
“Yes.” Tench agreed, backing her up eagerly, “You guys can stay here.”
“Really?!” The two children cheered, clamoring around. The older ones gave relieved smiles for the first time in years.
[True Safe Zone Established!]
[You Have Earned 2,000 Exp!]
[Return to Level 1?]
[{x} Yes { } No]
Tench froze, staring at the panels. He had completed the mission. What now? He should stay behind and support Ben, obviously, but…
“Go back.” Ben told him, sensing his conflict, “Check up on the kids.”
“And what’re you going to do?” Tench asked.
She twisted her neck until the cricks made popping sounds, “I’m going to finish this.” She declared.
A bold statement, but he believed her.
So, putting his fate in Ben, he pressed [Yes], and let the pixels take him away.
[Player Log End!]